There are three parts to
this section: a history of the Atlantean Army (in four parts), a
series of maps of the Atlantean Empire and its neighbours (five in
all), and some tables of battles, in various orders, which refer you
to the relevant map to find the sites. There is also section on the
Atlantean Navy. You may also like to refer to
an article on the military geography of the Great Continent, which is
in the section on geography: Military geography

THE GROWTH OF THE ARMY

Prior to the founding of the First Empire by Lir-Craonos in 199, all
the main noble houses within the territory of Atlantis had private
armies, with which they would fight each other at regular intervals. One
of the main reasons why Lir-Craonos was able to unite all the nobility
under his leadership in the new Empire was that he ended up with the
largest and most efficient of these armies. Until the Helvran wars after
250, the Emperor had only a small standing army, but he would augment it
up to 10000 or 15000 by recruitment if war threatened. The main nobles
were allowed to maintain very small permanent forces, and were required
in wartime to recruit up to 5000 men to augment the Royal Army, as it
came to be called.

During the Helvran wars, which involved relatively huge armies over a
period of many years, a nucleus of a professional army, serving for at
least 5 years was built up. Numbers increased gradually to a peak of
170000 at the end of the Helvran wars; after some demobilisation, they
were at a level of 110000 in 305, of which 75000 were Royal, and 35000
Noble Armies, out of a total population in the Empire of about 19
million. As the number of Provinces in the Empire increased, so the
military art had to be studied ever more seriously and professionally.
Military Academies for officers were set up, and after 292, the College
of Military Art to study strategy and tactics. Within the Provinces,
Military Governors were given control of the forces within that
Province. Noble armies were increasingly sidelined. Particularly after
the Family Wars of 305-314, many noble armies were disbanded, and those
retaining the privilege of raising independent armies for the Empire
were reduced to 5 in number. By the time of the Imperial Wars after 355,
the Atlantean Army had reached a size approaching 500000. This period
was the last in which independent Noble forces participated, and after
361 all non-Imperial forces were abolished.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE ARMY

Before 240, the Atlantean Army was an infantry-based militia,
armed with swords and shields and some armour. The way in which this
force developed and changed over the next 120 years to become the
all-powerful and brilliantly led army of the Second Empire was a result,
initially, of continual attempts to adapt to and meet the challenge of
the armies of the various countries and peoples with which it came into
conflict. Thus the First War with the Phonerians (240-245), who used
small, mobile forces, often armed with bows, and with much cavalry, (the
thachelbeli in Phonerian), encouraged the Atlanteans to take
cavalry more seriously, and incorporate small forces into their armies.

The conflict with the Helvrans introduced the Atlanteans to the
highly disciplined, rigid and phalanx style units of the Helvrans, armed
with pikes and swords. Atlantis was very impressed by this phalanx,
which it had never met before, and incorporated the Helvran word, kengen,
into its own vocabulary (cengen). The Atlanteans countered these
tactics eventually, not by copying them, but by finding a way of beating
them using well-disciplined forces with a good proportion of bowmen on a
basis of agile swordsmen (by 270, one bowmen to every four swordsmen).
Initially the bowmen used ordinary bows and arrows, but after 260 they
began to adopt the (wooden) crossbows, already in use

in Eliossie, which
were to become an inseparable part of the Second Empire Atlantean armed
forces. In addition, the Atlanteans made increasing use of siege
artillery, especially catapults and torsion crossbows. These style of
units also provided Atlantis with victory against the Chalcrans and
various Southern forces over the following 30 years.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE "IMPERIAL ATLANTEAN ARMY"

From the reign of Ruthoyon I onwards, the armies of Atlantis
gradually developed into the classic force of the Second Empire, known
often as the "Imperial Atlantean Army", which was to gain and
maintain the great Atlantean Empire until the Revolution of 585. We have
already seen how noble armies withered away in this period, and the Army
as a whole became completely professional. Military leadership also
became professionalised through the founding of Military Academies, and
the study of strategy and tactics were instituted by the College of
Military Art.

Army units varied in size till the 330s when the great military
Emperor Ruthoyon II established them at about 9 -11000 men each, each
being called a PUEGGIS. Numbers of these were permanently stationed in
the various Provinces, under the control of the Military Governors, and
each was given a number. These forces were largely composed of infantry,
in sub-units called OCHOSIX of about 800 men (after 360). There were 8
or 9 of these per PUEGGIS, plus two OCHOSIX of cavalry and some
artillery.

The Second War with the Phonerians (315-325) again taught the
Atlanteans of the importance of cavalry and also, for the first time of
mounted infantry. The latter became a vital part of the tactics of the
Army after 360, speeding forwards in advance of the main army to seize
tactically important terrain. Infantry remained predominantly composed
of swordsmen, which for a while after 320 also had spears for defence,
but the proportion of crossbow men gradually increased to one-third by
330, and one half by the 350s. The power of the crossbow men grew
gradually throughout this time, especially when, after the 350s, they
were made of steel rather than wood, and hence gained a much greater
range and strength. Also the bayonet-crossbow was invented and
introduced after 310. This ultimately led to the demise through
irrelevance of the swordsmen, though not until after 400. Before then
crossbow men were deployed in groups with swordsmen on their flanks,
several ranks deep. This rather defensive arrangement became much more
offensive after that time as the increasing numbers of bowmen were put
on both flanks of the swordsmen in each unit, and the depth of each unit
was much reduced.

After 320, field artillery was adopted, which was able to move with
increasing ease right on to the battlefield to support the armies.

Thus it was that by the beginning of the reign of Atlaniphon I, in
361, the basis of the great armies of his and later reigns had been
laid.